Nina Lewis

The book On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser languished on my list of books to-be-read.  For years.  Somehow it just wasn’t compelling reading like The Bonesetter’s Daughter or The English Patient or even The World is Flat. Three months ago, I bought it at a bargain book sale for one third the regular price.

Then, it languished on my bookshelf.

Every time I passed it, the book looked at me, tears welling up in its eyes.  “Read me, read me,” it begged, lips trembling.  It sniffled back the tears as I ignored it and walked on by.

“Enough of this whining,” I finally chastised it.  “Snap to it.  Let’s get you read!”  I grabbed it off the shelf and stuffed it in my bag so I could read it on my daily bus ride.

What a delightful surprise.  I’m not sure what I expected — lots of rules about commas, split infinitives, and semi-colons I guess.  (Semi-colons scare me.)  Didn’t get that.  I expected lots of advice about eliminating adverbs and adjectives and about using strong verbs.  Got that.

What I got (but didn’t expect) was exceptionally compelling reading.  Zinsser definitely practices what he preaches.  My favorite part was his trip to watch a camel caravan bring huge salt slabs (Africa’s white gold) 1,000 miles across the desert to land-locked Timbuktu.

Even if you aren’t interested in improving your writing, his words are so compelling that you won’t want to put the book down even when you come to the end.

Now the million dollar question is:  will my writing remain a wallflower shyly tapping her toe while hiding along the sidelines of life?  Or will my words dance off the page, a haughty tango, foot stomping, hand clapping overhead, rose clenched in my teeth, red skirt swirling, and hair flung over my shoulder (gray-roots and all 4 inches of it)?

I’m not sure . . .

2 Responses to “On Writing Well”

Leave a Reply